


Chosen

by LifeInABubbleIBlew



Category: Emmerdale, robron
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2020-01-08
Packaged: 2021-01-16 19:41:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21276638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LifeInABubbleIBlew/pseuds/LifeInABubbleIBlew
Summary: Aaron Dingle is the Slayer, skilled killer of demons in the most concentrated area of demonic power in the world, Emmerdale, while carrying plenty of his own. He's settled, if not happy, but a force comes into his world that he can neither reconcile or reckon with.





	1. Welcome to Emmerhell

Aaron didn't need this. 

Another loud smash, another yell. He didn't get paid for this, and rubbing his temples didn't seem to alleviate his stress.

"Nicola I swear, if you don't get them to stop I'll miss your house on patrol!"

Nicola King's head soon popped around the the frame of his office door, hair askew, face livid.

"Listen, mardy arse, I would gladly take Jimmy's death over what's going on out here! How am I supposed to deal with this, eh? You're the natural born demon hunter! Get out here and do your job!"

Aaron attempted the ten count, as his watcher taught him. He made it to three.

"They're your kids, you chose to bring them to work, so sort it. My job is to kill demons, not to save you from your parenting, and trust me the demon shit is easier than that."

The glare he received made him thankful Nicola was human these days. 

You see, Nicola was a demon, more specifically an Esurience demon. Wherever people wished for just a bit of fortune, a little bit of wealth, she'd appear and grant the wish. Only problem is, these poor people would suffer the universe balancing their sudden good fortune: the man who wished he could land that big contract meet Nicola, landed his client, all was good in his world. Until he found out his loving wife had a few interests outside the marriage that is. The past tense is, well, because Aaron had seen to all that when she moved to his turf, and when he broke her amulet, her center of power, her way of making a living! Well, she demanded to be compensated, and Aaron was a good person apparently, so against his better judgement he took her on as his secretary (Director of Operations, in Nicola's view).

His better judgement was dancing a jig in his face right now. 

And then there was a smash.

"ANGEL THAT WAS A FIVE THOUSAND YEAR OLD VIRILITY RELIC. WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO TELL AARON, EY? WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO GIVE YOUR FATHER FOR HIS BIRTHDAY?"

Aaron had had enough. He didn't want to help, but as they say, desperate times and all that. He stood from his desk, ensuring he was equipped before striding to his office door. Wrangling children wasn't in his job description, but he couldn't just sit here could he?

"Oh my god Aaron, listen I know I was rude before but thank you. Thank you. I really don't know how to get them to listen to me! I'm not good at this!" Nicola looked disconsolate, if Aaron wasn't so... well if he wasn't so him, he's sure he'd be moved.

He noted Arthur, perched atop his antique (and thankfully, deactivated), Apocalypse Chamber, and sighed. He had to do something.

"I'm off to patrol, then I'm off to the pub, then I'm off home. Lock up when you leave, clean up before you do. Everything you or yours broke, you bought."

Walking out of the office, entirely aware of Nicola's murderous gaze, he offered himself a rare half smile.

That really did help.

***

Patrol that night was uneventful in comparison to his adventures with Nicola's brood; two vampires in the graveyard, swiftly dispatched. A Wingle demon ("a demon that emits a foul stench of home brewed beer, very disorientating" his Watcher yelled at him) tested him briefly, but that was more down to his loss of focus than any particular brilliance on the demon's behalf, as said watcher, Paddy, was all too keen to point out.

Uneventful, except for.....

See, there was something in the village that night. Aaron didn't see it, but he thought that it had seen him. 

And he felt it. Whatever it was made the hairs on his arms stand on end, electricity and.... something. 

But whatever it was, it never showed it's face. If it had one.

"You were well distracted tonight" Paddy chuckled out as they wandered to the local hangout, the Woolpack, punching Aaron's arm. "That Wingle actually landed a punch, what's that all about?!"

"Dunno, Paddy, maybe I had this great big egg watching me work and it threw me off my game!"

"It's a bloke! It is, isn't it! I can tell, I can always tell." 

Paddy was full of it, because there was no bloke. Hadn't been for a while, no more than a one night only stress alleviater. How could there be? How could he drag some poor bloke into... this. Again.

"No, Patrick, no bloke. Demon's fumes just really got to me, not that you'd know considering you were half way up a tree."

"Strategic viewpoint, Aaron."

Aaron hummed, opening the door to the pub and standing aside to let his watcher in.

And then he felt it again. Eyes on him, somewhere. All the fine hairs on his body standing to attention. Gazing back into the night yielded him nothing, but he felt. Aaron didn't like to think of himself as above others because destiny granted him his calling, but he knew he could do things nobody else could, feel things nobody else could feel. It was supernature and right now it was kicking his ass.

"You coming in or what? Adam's eyeing your pint here mate and I dont reckon even you could fight him off."

***

Nights at the pub with Adam and Vic are always his favourite parts of the day. When the shield comes down, when he can somewhat relax, when he can be Aaron, not the Slayer. 

It's been tough, recently, Victoria struggling with the five year anniversary of the loss of her brother. Vampire got him, obviously, the call coming up from the London slayer, Connor.

"Now then lad! Tell us how many you dusted tonight, this one needs cheering up and my beautiful face isn't doing the job." A bright smile from Adam to his girlfriend tries to pierce her gloom, but she only shrugs.  
Adam was an anchor, a bit of light in the eternal gloom of Emmerdale. He's known loss, nobody who had been in the village for any considerable length of time has been spared it. In a strange way it bonded him and Victoria, and usually they both were enough to bring him out of his murky headspace, out of what he'd seen and.... the rest, and bring him back to normalcy.

But tonight. What was happening tonight? That thing you can't put your finger on, that indefatigable something. Aaron's already heightened senses were vibrating, maybe it was the beer, maybe it was the thing he knows is outside but couldn't see, something was making him feel like he couldn't stay here, with his friends, in the safety.

"Gunna go out for a smoke, see you in a minute yeah?" Aaron said, pushing himself from the table. That got Victoria's attention.

"Oh Aaron! You promised you quit!"

"Yes, mother, but I'm knees deep in demon guts and tonight was a bad night and I need a cig so are we going to fight or are you going to let me nip out for five?"

Victoria frowned but relented, before adding "I'm getting your gran to help me do an anti-smoking spell on you, can't be a Slayer with emphysema you know!"

Victoria's burgeoning enthusiasm in witchcraft had seemed like such a good idea at the start....

***

Aaron escaped the pub into the cool autumn air but his body was still flushed, still pulsing. Eight years a slayer and something new everyday, and he'd come closer to death more times than he'd like to admit, but this feeling was threatening to end him once and for all. Eyes closed, he turned to press his forehead against the cool stone of the pub when he heard a clear voice beside him.

"Rough night?"

Aaron's heart was setting a frantic pace, he didn't want a stranger seeing him like this. Hell, half the demons in Emmerdale could be watching him break down right now. He needed to get it together.

"I'm alright mate, just had a few too many." 

Aaron's sure he heard a sniff, like whoever was beside him was smelling the air.

"Brave of you, this. Out with your guard down, dead of night, in a village like this. Bladderd, allegedly. Never know who you might run into. Or what." Clear Voice said, a strange tinge of amusement in his voice.  
It riled Aaron, and he felt a tiny bit of himself come back as he pushed away from the wall to confront this person who had so rudely interrupted his breakdown.

"Listen, I'm not really out here to make friends so if you could ju-"

Then he sees the man. Tall, pale, blonde hair, dressed in a maroon suit that'd make most people look a prize prat, yet this guy pulled it off effortlessly. 

And he was barely a meter away from him, body to body, and he'd never noticed he'd gotten that close.

"If I could just..... you want me to leave?" 

Still that smirk.

He wanted to say no. 

He said; "yeah, actually. I'm having drinks with some mates, so I should just," Aaron nodded over his shoulder to the door.

Clear Voice surveyed Aaron's face for a minute, then smirked that infuriating smirk. He turned on his heels, hands buried in the pockets of his long coat as he walked away.

"Don't let me keep you then." 

Aaron suddenly didn't want him to go.

"Wait! You know what village this is, yeah? Built on the Hellmouth and all that. You okay getting home?"

Clear Voice stilled, then half turned his head. 

"I think so. Goodnight Aaron. Make sure you look after yourself."

"Wait, how'd you know my name?"

And then he turned to face Aaron fully, and smiled, but it wasn't a smirk. It was nice, and unsettling, and Aaron needed to know what it meant.

"Bit late to do this properly, to be honest. I'll be seeing you soon though, Aaron. Promise."

And there was that smirk again, and then the stranger was gone.

***

Aaron's new friend didn't make an appearance the next day, and he found himself bizarrely disappointed. He was intrigued, it's professional. A new face shows up on his turf, he needs a name to accompany it. All his usual contacts came up short, however, "fit but annoying and possibly evil" apparently not much of a description to work with. Nobody in the village that he'd asked could put a name to this annoyingly attractive face, hell nobody had even seen this guy. He was starting to become ever so slightly obsessed, a fact that didn't go unnoticed.

"You going to let any of us know why you're so preoccupied these past couple of days, or....." Victoria pestered tentatively.

"New face in town s'all, got my back up a bit." he offered, looking up briefly from his journals.

Vic frowned, then smiled brightly.

"Has to be the new owner, doesn't it? Up at Home Farm."

"Since when has there been a new owner? Why am I only just hearing about this?" 

"Moving vans arrived night before last," she said, helping herself to a handful of peanuts from the bowl on his desk. "a fair few of them, nobody's actually seen them yet like but you know how it goes with people who buy that house, it's usually not a bad thing they don't mingle with us common folk."

Aaron sat back in his chair, staring nonplussed at his company. How had he not known somebody had moved into the big house? This was his village, not a sheep gets shorn without his knowing about it. He's slipping.

"And you waited till now to tell me this because....?" he doesn't know why he's being snippy with Vic but he can't help it. Also that's a big lie because he knows exactly why. His stranger from the other night must be up at Home Farm, it all lines up, and he's furious that he's wasted his time.

Vic shrugged.

"Thought you'd already know, not much that happens here gets by you does it? Sorry, Aaron." 

Aaron sighed, pulling a cigarette out of his emergency stash (an 'emergency stash' he had to top up twice weekly, not that it was anybody's business).

"S'fine Vic, honestly, dunno why I'm getting so bent out of shape about this. Suppose I best take a trip up there, introduce myself and all that..."  
Victoria reclined in the chair opposite him, eyes narrowed to mere slits.

"So this guy who's turned up, what's he look like, Aaron?"

"What's that got to do with anything at all, Vic?" he muttered, nervously turning his attention back to his books. He knew exactly where she was going with this.

"Well, just in case he isn't the new Home Farm owner, dyu not think me and Adam should know who to look out for? It's purely for reconnaissance purposes, you get it." 

Vic raised an eyebrow, a smirk curling at her lips. A smirk that was terrifyingly familiar.

"Well I don't know really do I? It was dark." he bit out in reply. "Tallish, medium build, short blonde hair. Terrible dress sense, punchable face, attitude problem."

"But you don't really know, right? Because it was dark?" Vic's smile growing ever wider.

"Exactly. Now, if you wouldn't mind pissing off, some of us have work to do."

***

Another uneventful patrol, another night capped by a visit to the pub. 

Aaron hadn't felt that overwhelming sensation since the night he'd met Blondie McSmugface, quite frankly he was beginning to think he'd been a hallucination. Chalk it up to living above a gateway to Hell he supposed, just one of those Emmerdale things. He'd be lying if he said he didn't miss it; it's not that he didn't love these nights with his people, Vic and Adam, Nicola and Paddy, his mum Chas hovering over him whenever she wasn't serving, checking him over for any wounds and such. It's just, he'd felt a thrill that he hadn't felt in a long time, a thrill that he used to get from slaying that had long since departed. 

He wanted to feel that again. He wanted know who the blonde was.

"Oi!" 

A crisp hitting his forehead courtesy of Adam from across the table snapped him out of his reverie.

"Sorry what?" Aaron rather pathetically asked, he had frankly no idea what they'd been talking about for the last ten minutes.

"You've been miles away all night lad! The girls and me are starting to get offended here mate." Adam chuckled. "Up for some darts? Starting to think with you in cuckoo land I might be able to win a few frames, first time for everything yeah?"

(Aaron's heightened senses included his aim, a constant sore point between he and Adam and the dartboard.)

"Yeah go on then, always in the mood for making a tit out of you." 

They got up, Paddy tagging along, while Nicola and Victoria got into speculation about the new Home Farm owner.

"I mean, he or she or they or whatever have to make an appearance soon right?" Vic said. "Not one person I've spoken to has seen anything other than the moving vans, it's so weird."

"Always saw me and Jimmy up there you know," Nicola replied, a wistful look in her eyes. "Of course, that'd require Jimmy to have any ambition or competence or money or..."

"Alright Nico! I think we all get it, thanks" Jimmy cut in from beside her, face flushed.

Victoria looked thoughtful for a second. "Might take a trip up there when Aaron goes, there's not been any good gossip around here for ages. You'd think being the supernatural center of Yorkshire we'd get mor...." 

Vic's eyes snapped to the door as a man walked through, her mouth forming a perfect 'O'.

****

The feeling slammed into Aaron like truck, just as his last dart left his hand. He was beating Adam handily, naturally, even though he'd decided to take it easier on him for the night, and was just about to wrap up another victory (162-0, but who's counting?) when it hit. His whole body vibrating on a cellular level, hair on end, breathing laboured, he looked around the room (not noticing his dart missed the board by a good seven inches, and Paddy's head by mere centimetres). 

His eyes fell on Victoria, her face deathly pale, pure shock written into her features. He followed her eyeline to the door, where he saw his companion from the other night. No smug smile, in fact he looked almost.... nervous? 

The man's eyes moved quickly around the room, passing once over Aaron, before they landed on Victoria, who just about managed to breathe out-

"Rrr...Robert?"

***


	2. Sweet Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria and Robert reconnect, Aaron and Robert get closer in a way, and Aaron has an unfortunate encounter.

"Hiya Vic," the blonde, Robert, lamely offered as he took a step toward her. 

Vic took several steps of her own back, the hurt that flashed on Robert's face missed by everybody in the packed pub but Aaron.   
Still wide eyed, she looked to be cycling through a million questions in her head, before settling on a basic, if important one.

"You're dead.... you've been dead for five years! And then you come waltzing in here with a 'hiya Vic' like what?! Like that's normal? No! Stay right where you are!" 

Robert had taken more steps toward her, hands up, Aaron was sure he'd literally be waving a white flag if he had one. 

"Well as you can see Vic, I'm clearly not dead." Robert replied with a small laugh and a smile, a warm one, one that was utterly lost on Vic. Aaron knew why.

"Just because you're standing and walking and talking doesn't mean you're not dead! I got the call, Robert, you died! Vampire he said! So you just stay where you are."

Robert visibly tensed at her outburst, before taking a deep breath.

"Vic, I'm not a vampire. I'm not an anything, just Robert, and if we can go somewhere I'll explain everything, I'll prove anything. Please?" 

Vic ignored him, looking over to Aaron. She looked to be on the very edge of a minor breakdown.

"Aaron, will you.." she waved her her arms in Robert's direction "do something? Anything, please." she finished, letting Adam seat her in her chair, his eyes never leaving Robert.

Aaron was on fire as Robert's gaze turned to him, his hands still up in surrender. He shook his head, reaching into his pocket for his crucifix, an action that drew a roll of the eyes from the night's entertainment.

He advanced on Robert, arm outstretched, until he was pressing the wooden cross into the middle of his torso. Nothing but firm muscle, no reaction at all. Certainly not a reaction you'd get from a vampire.

Then Aaron almost passed out.

Robert gently grasped the wrist of his crucifix free arm, bringing it up to his chest before pressing it to his heart.

They held eye contact as Aaron felt the thump, and Aaron was pretty certain he'd never had a shag as intense as this. He needed to pull back, and did, turning to   
Vic while trying to gather himself.

"He's human, Vic, I swear. Well I mean, he has a heartbeat. I felt it, he's alive, Vic."

"Vic I swear," Robert began, eyes moving from Aaron's face to Victoria's, "I swear there's an explanation, and it won't be anywhere near good enough, and it won't make up for the last five years but I swear to you, there's a reason why you got that call, why I've been gone for so long. Just.... let's go somewhere we can talk. In er, private." he added, very much aware that every person in the busy pub was following their every word.

Victoria looked up from her lap, heavy tears staining her face. Adam crouched beside her.

"Babe you don't have to do anything, right, just tell whoever or whatever" he spat in Robert's direction "this is to do one."

Ignoring him, she stared long and hard at her brother. "It's really you," a statement really, not a question, and one that got a face splitting smile from Robert. "Adam, me and.... me and Rob are going back to ours, can you stop out tonight? At Aaron's?"

"Babe....." Adam began, before Vic cut him off.

"I need to hear what he's got to say. Look, Aaron said he felt his heart! The cross didn't burn him, he won't be able to get in the house if he's somehow still a vampire. Please?"

Adam hardly looked convinced, and he certainly wasn't happy, but he relented as Aaron gave him a swift nod.

"Have my number pulled up on your phone, call me the second you need to and me and Aaron'll be over in no time. Yeah?" he said, placing a kiss atop her head as she rose to her feet.

Robert moved back to the door, pushing it open as Vic left, body twisting to keep her gaze on her brother. Once he was alone, his attention turned to his rapt audience. One spectator in particular. 

"Lovely to meet you all. Even nicer to see some of you again,," he added, flashing a grin in Aaron's direction. "I trust you've got enough to talk about to last a few rounds at least, better pull a lock-in Chastity." And then he followed Victoria into the night.

As if summoned, perhaps by the promise of gossip, perhaps by the promise of a lock-in, Val Pollard and her best friend/partner in crime/Aaron's gran Faith fell through the doors at the other entrance.

"Not one of you no good, miserable, selfish wasters thought to call us when it kicked off aye?!"

***

Aaron dragged Adam out on another patrol with him, mostly to stop him following his girlfriend. He was secretly glad the village had been fairly quiet on the monster front lately, his head was spinning. 

As they walked down the rows of graves in the cemetery, there was something he just couldn't shake. He had felt Robert's heart beat, he was positive of that but... there was something off about it. It wasn't a steady thump, more arhythmic, like thump thumpthumpthump thump. But the crucifix hadn't burned him, and quite frankly he'd never met a vamp who could pass as human anywhere near how Robert had presented himself. 

And then there was the feeling. He was sure it was connected to Robert, in fact he'd bet his nonexistent life savings on Robert being the cause of it. And he knew Robert had been the one watching him on patrol. 

So Robert was clearly something, just something he'd never encountered before. He felt completely safe leaving him alone with Vic, call it instinct maybe, but he knew she was in no danger from him. He just wished he could get Adam to stop climbing the metaphorical walls, it was setting him more on edge.

An hour in and no sign of (un)life, his mind wandered to Vic's place.

***

"Ta, sis," Robert said as he received his tea, sat in his little sister's cosy, if rather vile living room. Victoria sat as far away as possible while still being in conversation distance, still in shock. It was understandable, he supposed. He had been gone for ten years, dead for five of those. "So.... you noticed you didn't have to invite me in, yeah? Score one for me not being a vampire." he laughed, not trying to break the ice really, more trying to make a little tiny crack.

"Start explaining, Robert, because I do not care what you are, I've still not decided whether I let you live or not."

The look on her face let him know she wasn't being flippant.

He glanced around the green (GREEN) room, taking in the photos, taking in everything. The sad fact was, he had no idea who his beloved sister was anymore, and he had no idea where to start with the story of his total absence from her life.

"When I left here, god you were so small! I mean, you're still a shortarse but you know what I mean." he let out a soft laugh.

"Where did you go? None of us knew, Robert! Not Andy, not dad, not Diane! Oh my god Diane..." she added, causing Robert to look up sharply.

"She alright? Her and Andy, they alright?" the fact that he genuinely cared took him by surprise.

"I dunno, let's find out when they find out you're not six feet under." she said plainly, before softening at the look on her brother's face "they're fine, Rob. Still in the village."

Great.

"London. I found my way to London, somehow, no idea so don't ask. I have even less idea how I managed to live there for those first few years." He added, not entirely humourlessly, but bitter with it. "Did barwork for the first couple of years, eventually ended up catching a break at this agricultural machinery firm." 

He decided to leave out the whole "sleeping with half the company including the owner's two daughters" part of his walk down memory lane. 

"Anyway, long boring story cut short; I worked my way to the top, or thereabouts, then I got knocked back down." Victoria raised her eyebrows at him. "So I may have embezzled a few.... hundred grand, but Vic! I wanted to start my own firm, back up here if I could, and well, I got greedy with it. The boss and his partners found out, I had to disappear, literally. So I called in a favour with a friend."

He could see the cogs turning in her head before it clicked. 

"Connor? The London slayer? He lied for you?"

"We were.... well, we knew each other. I saved him once, he got drugged in this bar by some human passing demon, he isn't exactly what you'd call diligent. I saw it, intervened. We barely got away alive, that sort of thing tends to create a bond I reckon." he smiled at Vic.

"And he helped you fake your own death."

"That he did. Then I had to lay low, they never really bought it, the owner and the partners. We made a good job of it, even hired a vampire to say he'd done it! But they were sus, and I knew they'd be looking, so I had to go away properly. Had to actually die, I guess." 

Victoria just nodded, that's all she could do. And then -

"So why are you back? What's changed?"

"Well, I heard Lawrence, the owner, I heard he'd finally died. The remaining partners sold his firm, last I heard I wasn't really a priority anymore. Seemed like a good time to do my best phoenix. I wanted to see you Vic, you're all I've thought about for... years, years and years. And if it blows up in my face, well, at least I got to see you again." 

And that finally broke down whatever walls she had left standing, and she threw herself to the sofa, and they hugged, for who knows how long.

Eventually they broke apart, Victoria near sobbing, Robert not far away himself. 

He was happy, ecstatic really, he'd never imagined in all his best case scenarios that it would go as well as this. He just hated that he had already lied to her. He shook himself mentally.

"So tell me about this Adam." he asked, eyes flashing.

***

Adam was up with the birds the following day. Not that Aaron could blame him, all Adam had received in response to his several (dozen) texts was a short message, telling him everything was fine and that she'd see him in the morning. It's just, Aaron isn't a morning person, so Adam pulling his best bull in a china shop impression in his kitchen at the crack of dawn wasn't exactly endearing. 

Yelling down the stairs for his former best mate to make him a cuppa, he hazily walked to his bathroom.

He'd dreamt about Robert the night before. Not the kind of dream he'd had the night they first met, unfortunately (though he supposed he was glad he wasn't doing his sheets at this unholy hour), but just as intense. He didn't typically dream like a normal person; his dreams were sometimes prophetic, his dream of a herd of zombified sheep running riot in the village was particularly memorable seeing how it came to pass two weeks later, Paddy's veterinary skills sadly useless that day. They were sometimes helpful, his sleeping brain disassembling aspects of the tougher happenings in his life, his work, and arranging them in a way his waking brain could utilise.

And sometimes, they were real. Real as in physical, he could touch and feel and manipulate the dream. The dream he had that night turned out to be all three.

~~~

They were sat in Aaron's office, on opposing sides of his desk, the blinds of his window shuttered. They were both smoking, Robert blowing smoke rings at Aaron like the irritant he is. 

"So, are you not going to ask then? I know you're dying to." 

Aaron studied the steady wave of smoke passing Robert's lips, weighing up his answer.

"You're breathing," he settled on finally, "you've got a heart beat, you didn't burn, you're breathing. Seem like an everyday human to me. Bit boring, really."

Robert laughed, a laugh that Aaron found he coveted.

Robert quirked that eyebrow at him, smirk in place. "Ah, but am I breathing, or am I merely smoking?" 

Aaron smirked back. "Don't think we have time for shit riddles, mate, I'll be waking up soon I think".

"So the heartbeat, then," Robert said, serious now. "I know it's on your mind. It's why we're here, isn't it? Come and have another feel if you'd like." 

Aaron considered the situation for a microsecond before getting to his feet and rounding the desk, Robert swiveling his chair to face him, reclining in the leather.

Aaron crouched between his spread legs, elbows resting on his thighs. He reached for the buttons of his shirt, taking in the pale expanse of Robert's chest. 

Then their eyes met.

Robert grasped both of his wrists this time, bringing one hand to his neck, positioning the other just over his heart. Aaron's eyes left Robert's, moving to his hand as he closed the small distance, feeling the cool skin against his palm.

That's all he felt. No beat in his chest. No pulse in his neck. His eyes reconnected with Robert's.

Finally, after five minutes, maybe more (it's kinda hard to keep track in a dream), he felt a thump. Then another. Then a rapid succession, surely too many for a man to survive. Robert grinned.

"You got it yet?"

"You can control it. Why?"

There was a clattering somewhere in the now dissolving office, Adam's waking world activities interrupting the moment.

"Maybe I'm something you've never seen before. Maybe I'm one of a kind, Aaron Dingle." he said, every tooth in his mouth on display as he grinned. 

"Maybe you're a dickhead, Robert Sugden." Aaron replied, secretly supremely proud of the long, deep laugh he drew from Robert.

"Maybe." The blonde conceded.

"Whatever you are, you're not dangerous." 

"Oh, we both know I am. Just not in the way you're used to. But no, I'm no danger to you and yours, or mine for that matter. Not in that way." 

More clatter from the Outside. Aaron could kill Adam. Robert laughed again.

"Don't be too harsh on him, some of us are functional at this time." Robert moved Aaron's hands away, then rose to his feet, leaving Aaron crouching. "I need to be getting off, unfortunately not in a way that makes use of you being in that position."

Aaron continued to stare up, fully aware of what Robert meant, of what he'd be looking at if he looked straight ahead.

"Maybe one day when we're both awake, ey?" 

And then Robert was gone, and then he was lying in bed, awake, with as many questions as answers in his head.

~~~

Vic finally got in touch around lunchtime, asking Adam and Aaron to meet her in the café. He'd never seen Adam move so fast, he was half sprinting to keep up with him as they made their way down main street. In the café, they found Vic and Robert secreted in a corner, Victoria fully rapt by whatever her brother was saying.  
Robert paused the conversation when they arrived, turning his head and offering a cheery grin, gesturing at the empty seats opposite them. Aaron could feel that feeling again, his and Robert's he supposed, but it was weaker, more distant that afternoon. They took their seats, and Aaron braced himself.

The story was relayed to them just as it had been to Vic the night before, Robert occasionally jumping in to amend or add little things here and there, his eyes always on Aaron as he did. 

Adam seemed satisfied, he was always an easy guy to please, even when the story was as out there as Robert's, and when the tale was told he quite happily supported Robert's moving in with them. Aaron wasn't so easy.

"Well it won't be for long at least." Robert supplied. "Just need a few more days to get Home Farm right." 

"Oh my god mate so it is you! Well I mean, we didn't know if was you but we thought Aaron's stranger was the one moving in up there!" Adam chortled.

"Did we now?" Robert said, eyes still trained on Aaron, who suddenly found himself very interested in the contents of his teacup.

"Well, I wasn't exactly sure what welcome I'd be coming back to," he continued, "but seen as we're all friends, I'd love to have you all over. When I'm set up. There's actually some things up there I'm curious to get a second opinion on." 

"And who else will you be inviting, Rob?" Vic questioned menacingly, prompting a sigh from the man in response.

"Yes Vic, I'm seeing Andy and Diane today, and yes if Andy doesn't put me in hospital, or I'm not banged up for putting him in one, then yes, they're invited." 

"That's all I wanted," Vic said brightly, grabbing Adam's hand as she stood and made her way to the counter, leaving her brother in Aaron's company.

"Reading the tea leaves? They think of everything at slayer academy." Robert asked, Aaron still engrossed in the bottom of his mug.

"Nice chat," Robert continued. "this morning I mean. Illuminating, really. I mean I won't lie, it's a bit weird getting pulled into somebody's dream, but when in Emmerdale...." he waved his hand nonchalantly.

Aaron just stared, slack jawed. He was bluffing, surely. But how could he be?  
Robert glanced over Aaron's head, seeing his sister and her boyfriend receive their refills.

"Listen, can you get away? Tonight? Come up to Home Farm after you patrol, we can talk." 

"What have we got to say to each other?" Aaron finally replied, risking a look up at Robert.

"Well we had plenty to say this morning, before that oaf interrupted. Look, just come over. I know you know there's more going on here."

Before Aaron could question this rather weighty statement further, Vic and Adam returned, prompting Robert to rise to his feet.

"Well as fun as this has been, something that isn't fun is waiting to be hung, so best go face Andy I suppose."

"You sure you don't want company?" Vic offered, chewing her bottom lip nervously.

"Thanks but no, best do this without a contingent. I'll call when it's done." he assured, giving the table a brisk nod before leaving.

"You know, he's a pretty decent lad, your brother. Dunno what Aaron was so put out by." Adam said.

Aaron had to actually bite his tongue before he informed Adam of Robert's opinion of his oafishness.

***

Aaron's run of uneventful patrols ended that night.

He had pursued his target across most of the village. A vampire, a particularly slippery vampire, causing him no end of trouble. Aaron thought he'd finally cornered her round the back of the sweet factory, but as he looked around, stake in hand, there was nothing. 

Until there was.

Before he knew what had hit him, he was flat on his back on the ground. Two vampires holding his legs down, one pinning his upper body by his biceps, his initial quarry perched beside him, leering.

He was fucked, he knew it. He was strong, but caught off guard by four vampires wasn't an ideal situation, and though he struggled, they were too much.

He started to wonder if it was true what they say, about your life flashing before your eyes before you die. He'd been in plenty of close calls, of course, but there was always wriggle room, always room to work. Until tonight that is.

He wondered what it is he'd see, before he went on to whatever's next, assuming that there is anywhere. Probably not much, so much of his life had been taken up by training, and fighting, and killing. Dead things and undead things. He hoped he'd done enough with Vic and Adam, Nicola and Paddy, his mum. He hoped they knew....

The female vampire was on him, cat like quick, straddling his waist.

"Funny," she said. "I was just going to eat you, everybody says a Slayer is the most delicious sweet going. But I wonder......"

She grabbed his forearm, the one with the stake in hand, bending his arm awkwardly so the point was lightly digging into his sternum. 

"I wonder, has a slayer ever been killed by their own stake?"

She jerked his arm up further, pressed the stake deeper, and it gave; the audible breaking bone, the pain, it would have been enough to make him throw up, if he weren't about to die.

"Guess you'll go down in history." the vampire purred in his ear, pressing harder still, the top of the stake piercing the skin between his ribs.

And then she was dust.

The pressure was suddenly gone from his legs, then the grip on his biceps followed suit, until the only thing keeping him on the ground was his fear and the pain in his chest, in his arm. 

He put the hand of his unbroken arm over the wound and gave himself a moment to think. It all happened so fast, where had they gone? Who had dusted the girl? 

He thought of Paddy, checking up on him, doing something stupid when he found him, getting himself killed because of him. His vision began to blur around the edges when he heard footsteps fast approaching.

Suddenly, kneeling over him, in his face, Robert.

"What are you playing at, ey?" he said shakily, checking Aaron head to foot. Aaron wondered what he'd be able to see exactly, he doubted his arm was too visibly mangled, and the blood wouldn't show on his dark sweater; there was little light around the back of the factory. What had he been playing at? Paddy had taught him better than that.

And yet, he zeroed in on the wound almost instantly. 

"Right, the arm's one thing, a bad thing, but a thing that'll definitely mend. This fucking hole in your chest, this is a problem." Robert was trying to keep things as light as possible under the circumstances but he knew it was fake. Aaron was in trouble. 

"You're going to hate this but I'm going to have to carry you back to the pub. It's close by, Aaron." He stated, as if that was the end of the conversation, in response to Aaron's weak protest.

"Yours.... take me up to yours...."

"Aaron, I don't have my car! If I did you'd be half way to hospital right now. Please, I can carry you to the pub in no time."

"No!" Aaron said more forcefully. "Mum can't see me like this. Please Robert, take me to your place."

Aaron could see the brief internal debate Robert was having written all over his face, and then he was up. One arm under Aaron's shoulders, the other under his knees, Robert lifted Aaron with an ease that would've given Aaron pause for thought under better circumstances.

"Right, okay. I'm going to have to run because you're.... this isn't going to be fun for you, with that arm."

"Well tonight's been a barrel of laughs so far, it was bound to come crashing down at some point." Aaron said, getting one of those laughs out of Robert.

And then they were off. 

Aaron didn't remember much of the journey afterwards; he remembered that Robert was fast, and that despite his injuries and the fact that he was being carried, he was surprisingly comfortable. Either that or he'd crossed a pain threshold that looped him back round to feeling healthy again. 

He remembered Robert prattling on the whole time, about nothing and everything, asking questions that he demanded answers to, which Aaron was sure he gave to the best of his current ability. And then they stopped.

"We're here, you'll be right soon, okay? I'll get you right."

Aaron wished he was half as confident about that as Robert seemed to be, though he wasn't sure how much he believed in Robert's bravado either, but he was far beyond the capability to fight. He closed his eyes.  
Robert laughed suddenly.

"Just realised something. Aaron, AARON." Aaron gathered whatever strength he had left to open one eye.

"What's that then?" he managed to croak out.

"We're stood in front of the doors to my house. I'm about to carry you over the threshold. Seems a bit weird since you've never taken me out on even one date but....."

Somehow, from somewhere, that got a weak laugh from Aaron.

"Always knew I'd never get married, just thought that'd be because nobody would have me, not because I carked it. Guess I'll have to settle for a fit blonde bloke doing the honours, better than nowt I suppose." Aaron heard a door open then close behind them.

"Well you can't die now, I've got a lifetime of reminding you that you called me fit to look forward to."

Aaron was lowered onto a sofa, eyes closed. He was sure Robert was somewhere close by, and as he finally succumbed to unconsciousness, he thought he was sure there's worse ways to go out than this.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaron recovers, and leaps to a conclusion

Robert was perched on his bed, the bed he hadn't slept in, and watched Aaron fight. It would have been inspiring if he wasn't so scared. 

The arm was a break. A break, it sucks, but it doesn't kill. The puncture to his chest though.....

Robert shook his head. 

Robert had been near frantic by the time he'd got Aaron off the sofa and upstairs to his room. He knew from past experience that Slayers recover fast, but this wasn't what he'd experienced before. Every time he looked at the wound in Aaron's chest he grew more worried, the female vamp had done a good job. Robert felt a fresh wave of fury, and a new resolve to track down the one who had got away. 

Robert realised Aaron's wound was still raw, still undressed, and kicked himself for fixating on a future task when a more pressing matter was happening in the now. As he pulled back the duvet, pulled up Aaron's sweater, taking note of the numerous scars there, he wondered if he'd ever learn. 

***

Aaron, as it turned out, was resilient even as Slayers go. He slept for three days, and Robert did what he had to do in the meantime. When Aaron's phone started to light up with missed calls and texts, Chas beside herself with worry, Adam and Vic not much better, he lied. Told them via text that he was away on a job, Manchester slayer needed his help at short notice. They bought the lie. It's what he does best after all.

They'd been picking up Aaron's duty, but Robert had been there in the shadows actually doing the job, watching them, watching Vic specifically, staking the vampires that ran away not through fear but purely from being outnumbered. 

There was absolutely no way he was going to let his little sister patrol a village like this without a chaperone, no matter how powerful a witch she claimed to be. Call him old fashioned.

***

Aaron awoke on the the fourth morning. 

He was technically comfortable but in an unfamiliar place, a bed he didn't know in an ornate room that he'd never seen before, and so he was immediately panicked. He lunged into a seating position, until his his body informed him that that was a very painful and stupid thing to do, so he laid back down with a low grunt and turned his head.

There was Robert, asleep in a chair by his bed. A thought popped into his head, a memory from before he received his calling as a slayer. A huge dog, a German Shepherd that still thought it was a puppy trying to fit itself into spaces far too small for it. He often wondered, back when things were easy, how a giant like Clyde fit himself into such small spaces and looking at Robert, how he looked at peace in the tiny chair beside him he felt nostalgia wash over him. The affection. He smiled fondly at Robert's sleeping form, before his brain asked him why he really cared. For once, for the first time in so long the other time might as well not exist, he told himself to shut up. 

"Rob. Robert." He croaked, and was privately thrilled to see the man in question stir immediately, and rise from the chair. 

"You look like shit." He said. Robert didn't, Aaron wondered if he was capable, but Robert was obviously disheveled in a way he hadn't seen him before. 

Robert flashed a grin, somewhere between humoured and relieved, and sat on the bed. Seconds or minutes or hours of conversation passed in silence, Aaron not having a clue what he was told or what he said. It was like they could just look at each other and know things and come out the other side less in the know than ever. 

Finally, Robert used his voice.

"I know we really don't know each other that well, but if you scare me like that again I'll kill you." Robert said, smile fading as he did. 

"Occupational hazard," Aaron replied, wondering why this moment was so charged.

"Yeah well, I'd tell you to get a different job but I know, destiny and that. But be better at it because I can't....."

Robert turned his eyes down toward his lap. He almost looked bashful, Aaron thought, wondering most of all where he'd picked up that word and why he felt compelled to use it with regards to this relative stranger. All of a sudden, his eyelids were heavy.

"Tell me what happened, I don't remember." He mumbled, eyes closed but talking in Robert's direction.

"Tomorrow" Robert said, pushing a kiss he didn't quite know the root of but welcomed all the same into his forehead, sweeping back his curled fringe.

***

Aaron was restless and irritable on the sixth morning after the accident. Robert had filled him in of what had happened to him that night, how he'd stumbled across Aaron prone and so close to death at the hands of a pack of vampires. He didn't believe it for second. Not that he was finally gotten, no, as soon as Robert told him of the female vampire he remembered it all. The taunting, the various hands pinning him down. He could never have fought them off himself, he was dead and he remembered knowing it. How did Robert?

For all his arrogance, the general swagger he carried himself with usually, Aaron instinctively knew Robert was underplaying his role in getting him out of the certain death predicament he was in that night. Whenever he asked how Robert dusted numerous vampires by himself, he merely shrugged and said he got lucky. It was night and he had cover. When he asked how Robert had gotten him to Home Farm Robert had paused his ministrations briefly, the ghost of something passing over his face. His mouth and eyes twitched akin to amusement for a second before they decided on his prior look of concentration, and he said he had the car and was lucky. 

When he'd asked why Robert was even there in the first place, Robert finished redressing his wound abruptly, avoiding any eye contact with Aaron. 

"I was walking down to see Vic and heard something, be grateful for once and shut up." He'd said as he moved to the en suite to dispose of the old bandages. 

He's a liar, Aaron had thought then. And a bad one. He just happened to have the car but was walking to see Vic? But he felt safe with him, more than that he felt cared for. The contradiction of Robert Sugden, never ceasing. 

***

Aaron was surprised, and more than a little ashamed, that it took him so long to think about who'd taken over his patrol during his convalescence. On the seventh morning, he finally walked again, legs stiff and sore but grateful he was putting them to use, and descended the ornate staircase into the cavernous ground floor of Home Farm. He followed the increasingly loud voice of Robert.

"......Vic I don't know where he is, I just know he said he won't be back..... I barely spoke to him when he told me he was going! No.... no Vic I'm sure he's... he's fine Vic, he's a Slayer! Yes I know the mortality rate, but Aaron's better than them. What? I don't care! He just obviously is. No just.... Vic, if you don't want to patrol tonight then don't bother, the village will be fine one night.... Vic I don't know, I don't know him, maybe it all got too much or something...... he'll be back one day........because I know it. Because his home's here? Stop being a nag," and then Robert snorted. "Mother hen. Love you too, it'll be fine. Speak later, bye."

From the doorway to the kitchen, Aaron saw Robert end the call then place his phone on the counter. He stood hunched over it, before shaking his head and returning to the pan he'd been tending to before. 

Aaron formed a plan. He quietly backed up the grand staircase, waited, then stomped down them with as much energy as he had, and rounded into the kitchen with a bright "Alright! What's cooking?"

Robert startled, dropping his spatula before gathering himself, and the utensil.

"What are you doing up? You're meant to be," Robert waved the spatula in his direction, "resting. You might not remember it but we've had this argument a lot over the past week." Robert turned his back on Aaron to continue cooking.

"I'm fine," Aaron replied, warily rounding the kitchen island, discreetly picking up a sharp knife left by a half mutilated pineapple on the counter and tucking it into his hand. 

"Who were you on the phone to just now? I heard you getting twatty." he said as continued to inch closer to Robert. There was a long pause. 

"Insurance company, annoying and boring and if you ask me ver-" 

Aaron suddenly spun Robert around and pinned him to the refrigerator, arm across his chest, fist bunched at his shoulder, palmed knife to his throat.

"You're a liar, and you've been lying since you got here," Aaron snarled, pressing the knife as deep as he could without actually piercing Robert's throat. "And now you're going to tell me what you are, and what you're doing here, then I'm going to kill you."

Robert actually laughed, a maniacal laugh, the force of it causing the knife to draw blood.

"What, I lie to Vic once or maybe actually a dozen times and all of a sudden I deserve death? There's loyality and then there's this." 

Robert didn't look the least bit concerned at the sharp blade digging into his throat, on the contrary he looked wild. Like he was enjoying himself. It just riled Aaron up further.

"You lied to Vic just now. You lied about how you found me. You were lying when you told Adam why you were away so long, I know it. You've been watchin' me for weeks and you're in my dreams and you're going to tell me how and why now and then I'll kill you."

Aaron was breathing hard, still not fully recovered. It struck him suddenly that he couldn't feel Robert's breath at all, even though their mouths were so close. But he'd felt his heart beat? 

The smirk finally faded from Robert's face.

"I'm already dead, do your best. But I think you need to hear my side, why I asked you up here in the first place before you put yourself in a position where I had to save you. And not that this knife is capable but I don't think you'll want to finish me."

Aaron didn't loosen any of his grips on Robert but he felt himself soften inside.

"Talk."

"I've lied, I admit it. That to Vic? That was just to cover for you, you said you didn't want your mum worrying so I said you were on an out of town job and fobbed them off after that, look at the messages yourself if you need to."

Aaron searched Robert's face, wide eyed, nostrils flaring, and saw nothing but truth. He kept the knife where it was and nodded for Robert to continue.

"That story I told Vic, the one you heard in the cafe..... it wasn't a complete lie but!" he exclaimed as Aaron pressed him harder against the refrigerator. "It was part of the truth, and I needed you onside before I could even think of telling her what really happened. That's why I invited you up here,there is something here that you need to know about. In the cellar."

"Right so let me get this straight. You, a dead man, come back to town. Stalk me and my friends, lie to us and expect me to follow you into a cellar? You're bad at this demon lark." 

But even as Aaron said those words he knew they were false, he just knew.

"Aaron listen to me, if I wanted you or Vic or anybody dead I would've done it by now and believe me, only you would've had a fighting chance to stop me and that's not my ego talking, but I didn't. If I wanted you dead I would've let that pack take you, or killed you myself this week. Please." 

Robert was staring at him, laid bare and somehow visibly honest. Aaron lowered the knife and removed himself from Robert, followed the pull of his body away from the refrigerator like it was gravitational. 

Robert didn't look out of breath, and the cut on his from the knife wasn't bleeding. Aaron had felt his heart....

Aaron furrowed his brow as he looked at Robert's face, pale and sharp and pleading. There was a stab in his chest that felt like love, but that's ridiculous. This whole thing is ridiculous. His temper rose again.

"What are you, and why are you in my head all the time." he pushed out through a clenched jaw.

Robert looked at the floor, then back at Aaron, tears swimming in his eyes.

"They killed me. And then they brought me back. And now they're going to end the world, and I can feel it. And it hurts so much."

And to Aaron's shock, and embarrassment frankly, Robert collapsed in tears on the kitchen floor.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was something I've been sitting on forever, and you know how it is. But I thought tonight (post Robert's last episode), some people might enjoy this. And I want to keep Robert's voice (as I hear it) in my head, so here's something to keep me wanting to write even if it's only for a small group,or myself. Haha.
> 
> Watch Buffy, younglings who haven't already.


End file.
